Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to speak today. The whole transportation system in Canada being tied up is a matter of pressing concern.
These services are never considered to be essential until after the services are withdrawn. We are not talking strictly about a strike. We are talking about a work stoppage. A work stoppage can be brought about whether it is a strike or a lockout. Whenever I refer to this situation I am talking about the work stoppage. People will understand we have work stoppages taking place in two separate areas. One is the withdrawal of services and the other is an area where the people are actually locked out.
These work stoppages result in a lot of lost jobs. My friends in the government party have campaigned vigorously on restoring jobs. This is certainly an opportunity for them to put up in this case, put their best foot forward and come up with legislation that will put these people back to work.
This is a stop gap measure. This is not a solution for the long haul. My party has been encouraging the government to come up with some long term solutions. For labour and management to have the possibility of back to work legislation constantly a threat they do not exactly sharpen their pencils and come to their best position. A case in point is where we have these contracts expiring up to 27 months before the actual work stoppage takes place. That is not collective bargaining at its best. That is not the process working.
In the House on March 3 I asked the minister what she was prepared to do in order to come up with some long term solutions. I was assured the collective bargaining process was working wonderfully and could expect it to work that way in the future.
Obviously it has not. Here we are once again trying to get unanimous consent from the House. I hope we do so we can get the parties back to the table, the rolling stock moving on the rails again, the passenger trains running again and the freight moving to its customers. That is of utmost importance. It is not just that we are looking at losses to farmers. We are looking at losses to farmers, huge losses, but there is a great spinoff of lost jobs as well.
Once these jobs are lost it will be impossible to get them back. Once the buyers of our services and our goods have decided they can get them from other sources it will take a lot of negotiation and a lot of proving that we will not put up with this kind of labour disruption in the future to prove to them that we are a reliable supplier of goods and services.
The people in the Bloc seem not to support the notion of introducing this legislation. It is of utmost importance to introduce this legislation today. I call on my colleagues from the Bloc to give their consent to this legislation so that we can debate it properly and get the parties back to the table and the freight moving again. To do otherwise is partisan politics at its worst, not looking at Canada's overall benefit.
Our colleagues in the Bloc could easily dismiss this as one of Canada's problems. After all, their ultimate goal is to separate from Canada. They could implement any kind of labour legislation they like. I would plead with them to support the introduction of this legislation today.
I assume me colleagues in the NDP will not support the introduction of this bill today. It would be extremely difficult for them to justify to their constituents how they could hold up a bill for another 48 hours which would effectively bring to the market the goods their constituents are producing. This is an extremely costly situation. It is not just the direct jobs, but the spinoff jobs. The long term effect of this has not been addressed.
Many customers of Canada's goods in the past have put up with disruptions of this type and are counting on back to work legislation. If this is not dealt with, to get these people back to the table and to get these parties talking again and the stock moving at a reasonable pace, our customers will say this is the last time they are prepared to put up with this kind of here today, gone tomorrow freight service. They will start looking for alternate routes to ship their goods.
Mr. Lorne Hehn, chief commissioner of the Canadian Wheat Board, said we cannot afford to shut down a multibillion dollar industry for the sake of a few people. These services are never considered essential until after they have been withdrawn. Suddenly these are essential services.
When will this government come up with legislation to deal with these problems over the big picture, rather than this crisis management attitude?
At the moment crisis management is something we must consider in order to get us over this hump. I implore the government to come up with similar legislation to what it so very efficiently defeated here, presented by my colleague in Bill C-262.
The senior grain transportation committee voted on October 14, 1994 to support a system of final offer arbitration for all labour negotiations affecting grain movement. I have heard some of my colleagues in the Bloc say this effectively bans the collective agreement process. This is absolutely ridiculous. It is an augmentation to the collective bargaining process. This is not something imposed on the partners in the collective bargaining process from on high. It is something either one of the parties can invite.
It induces those parties to come up with a reasonable offer, their best offer to begin with. Instead of having negotiations or pseudo negotiations for 27 months, as in the case of one union, they could get their heads together and figure out their final position and present that position to begin with, rather than to parley back and forth for 27 months without getting anywhere.
This is a controversial bill and some of my colleagues in the House are philosophically opposed to having this bill presented. I implore them to allow it to be presented. I passionately ask they allow first reading of the bill so we can at least debate it and get it on the floor of the House where it belongs and to do what we can to begin to replenish or regain our reputation as a reputable supplier of goods.